Seagate has gone private in before. In 2000, a group of investors including Silver Lake Partners and Texas Pacific Group bought Seagate for $1.7 billion and took it private. Seagate's current CEO, Steve Luczo, founded Silver Lake.

In 2002, Seagate went public again in an IPO worth $870 million.

Seagate is incorporated in Ireland and operates out of Scotts Valley, Ca.. It employed 52,600 people as of July, nearly 86% of whom work in Asia, The Associated Press said.